A distributed protocol to improve the survivability of trunk networks

Abstract

The extensive deployment of high-bandwidth fiber-optic transmission facilities has increased the amount of damage that can be caused by a single failtire. To reduce the risk of a catastrophic loss of service, we develop a simple distributed protocol for maintaining the call-canying capacity of a telecommunications trunk network after the failure of certain network components. Our protocol is designed for a reconfigurable trunk network consisting of high-bandwidth fiber links connected through reconfigurable digital cross connect nodes. It works for both node and link failures Our solution has two parts: first cause the surviving digital cross connects to agree on the topology (i e., what is up and what is down) and second, based on the agreed topology, reconfigure the digital cross connect nodes to restore as much call-carrying capacity as possible.